Eastern Gate and Around the Mountain

The Christmas season is in full swing. You can see it as you go walking through the stores, and now you can see it as you drive through the neighborhoods. Roger has even hung some Christmas lights for me this year. I appreciate him and Mike for getting my new electrical outlets put in. Our neighbor Deanna and Lane have also put up some lights. I do so enjoy the sights and sounds of Christmas.

Speaking of the sounds of Christmas, I took our Christmas songs up to church Sunday so we could start singing some of them. I always get mixed emotions. Some like me love to sing the Christmas carols, and a few say that they are hard to sing. I have to admit some of them are a little hard for me to play on the piano. I always laugh and say if I would start practicing on them about January, I might have them down pat by Christmas.

Play practice is in full swing, and it’s a good thing. Our play is going to be December 15, so we don’t have much time left. I know we always have a great time, and the kids and adults get to enjoy spreading the word of God in a fun way. We will be eating snacks afterwards. The night after that is our youth night Sunday night, and we have decided since everyone will be having a lot of Christmas dinners, we will just have soup and chili. Of course we will also have any dessert any one wants to bring, after all we do like to eat.

Bud, Sarah, Abby and Jenny Hampton, Jon Mitchell and I all went down to Plainview School and sung for the fire department. There were several other churches present too. It was a good chance to visit and hear some good Christian music.

We have been busy through the Thanksgiving season. We had company in from California and got to spend a lot of time with them. It started with dinner at the nursing home with our mother. There were ten of us who enjoyed lunch with her that day. We were so thankful that she was able to get up and eat with us at the dining room table, and talk a little with everyone. Thursday we all went up to Howards for our traditional Thanksgiving Day dinner. We had Howard, Phyllis, Jennifer, Eric, Roger and I. All of our kids: Dustin, Tina, Courtney, Rilee, Logan, Shawn, Miranda, Braxton and Alexis. We also had Lawrence Fossett and his family: Alan, Debbie, Amy, Shaun and Sarah. Friday we all met at Mexican Villa and Stan and Dottie and all of their family came and joined us. It was a great weekend of visiting and catching up.

I heard that Bud and Francis also got to enjoy a couple of gatherings, one at Virginia and Tom’s and they had one dinner at their house.

Our pastor has enjoyed a little vacation, so we enjoyed Jon preaching to us this weekend. He told us about telling people about Jesus. But, he said it will only work, if you pray about it and it is what God is telling you to do. Sometimes, we get ideas in our head of what we think we (or others) should be doing and we take it upon ourselves to tell them. If God is not leading the way we might be doing more harm than good, so always make sure that you are letting God be your pilot not your co-pilot.

As you go about your week, I know you will be doing some Christmas shopping. Use this time to tell someone about Jesus, but make sure you have prayed about it and let God lead the way. Have a Merry Christmas Season.